Since the age of four, Jennifer remembers the desire of wanting to sing, act, and entertain. “It was simply a natural instinct to want to expresser myself,” she shared. Her mother provided her and her two siblings opportunities in gymnastics, dancing, music, and various other mediums to express themselves. Jennifer was the only one who blossomed through these privileges and remains the only one throughout her immediate and distant family who pursued a music career.

Music was not always her primary focus though. She balanced interest in both singing and acting until her mid twenties. “I couldn’t spend half my energy in two fields, so I had to chose one. I looked at music as being me in relation to acting to be everyone else. Plus, with music I could inspire without having to wait to be hired“, she reflected upon. When asked of any other fields she could see herself working in, she answered, “I could see myself going into a level of counseling, or therapy, or something motivational and optimistic for those who where not able to look past the bad.”

“Hope,” was her one-word description of what she expresses in her music. Jennifer participates with “Musicians On Call” in her free time here in New York City. Volunteering her time, “just feels like what I need to be doing,” she effortlessly tells. “I truly believe my calling is to create – poems, scripts, songs, music. I don’t question my creativity. It seems whatever life brings; it always brings me back to music. That is what keeps my diligence, my internal sensing of calling.”

“I’ve always felt the need to write,” she ornately continues, “influence is always something to make from circumstance. I try not to look at the bad as being just bad, rather looking at what came of it. This would just be one part of my influences in writing. My writing is always evolving, coming from all sides. I don’t really have dry spells in writing. I go through things, let them breathe with me, then write. Continuous writing reminds me to constantly develop, share, and open others to hope. I don’t have all the words of wisdom, but my goal is to allow my influences to tell a story, have that story bring forward an emotion, and that emotion to above all else reside hope in my audiences.”

My personal favorite song of Jennifer’s is “Running Out of Time”, from her “Silenced”, album. Needless to say, I HAD to ask her the story behind the story. She imparted, “‘Running Out of Time”, was inspired from my real life sense of running out of time with my career. I questioned the length of my journey, my career to fame journey, in order to be recognized. I had a twisted influence of a time period I felt I had to be at in order to justify my journey. I eventually woke up from this period of questioning and decided just to be me and do what I want without comparing myself to others’ journey.” To me, there is even more poetry to this track, knowing the life experience behind it.

I asked about her views and memories about her career in the music community, Jennifer shares:

Best thing about the music community: “The best thing is simply getting to share the experience of music. I think another thing that is truly great is seeing individuals in an audience connect with the story of the song. I know I’ve done my job when I see that.”

Hardest thing about the music community: “I would have to say the hardest thing is not being present with your audience during a performance. When you’re in touch with them it’s amazing, but when you lose them, someone’s talking, or a phone is ringing, [pauses] it’s just a reminder of how hard it can be standing in front of people.”

Most interesting performance while in the music community: “It’s not so much interesting as one of my favorite memories; the night of my 1st album release when my father came from Florida to support me. Seeing him was pure joy. It gave me validation. It was the first time I felt him accept my seriousness about music.”

One thing she admitted to me was her continual onset of nervousness before a performance. “I still get nervous, then my adrenaline takes over somewhere along the way. I think the day I have no emotions tied to a performance is the day I’m in trouble and should not be in music. Luckily, I don’t think I’ll ever get over these emotions [laughs],” she explains.

On topic of where the evolution of music is headed, Jennifer can see a few prospect directions. She views today’s music evolution as, “the live performance will never be lost. But I think the structure in how an audience exists will chance. I’m still trying to figure this out. I believe some of the audience is online. There is a site, (www.stageit.com), where you can pay for a ticket and watch the performance live from your bedroom! I also think that labels are no longer essential. Again, they will always exist in one form, but I think I see more musicians going back to Motown-like community. We are working together and growing intertwined as we collectively build up. This is why social media is more important than five or ten years ago. We also have more hybrids of genre, which makes for greater music.”

When asked if she could change one thing, music related or not, what would it be, she quickly shared, “I wish people would learn to think for themselves, what they see, hear, experience.”

Jennifer cannot isolate a single favorite genre she consistently tunes in for. She admits, “I am more interested in listening to a song’s story, regardless if it’s pop, folk, rock, anything else. I think most people would be shocked to find some old school in my music library. ABBA, Donna Summer, Barbara Streisand.”

As of right now, there is no album in the works. A larger purpose has yet to form a fluid creative means to put together an album. Instead, Jennifer is focusing on singles. Presently, she is working on two different singles in two different studios, pairing herself with a producer at one and a songwriter at the other. She IS, however, performing live throughout New York City’s five boroughs. When asking about her favorite performance venues in NYC, she listed, “The Shrine Bar in Harlem. It reminds me of New Orleans [pauses], not that I’ve ever been, but I imagine it’s what the bars down there are like. [laughs.] Two other favorites of mine are The Bitter End here in New York and Zoe’s Café in LA.”

Jennifer Vazquez is a person, a voice, and an energy of pure positivity: beauty outside, in, and projections to everyone around her. While talking with her, and listening to her live in performance, I can’t help but to notice not only my smile, but also the smiles of everyone else. This is what her music will offer you. If you are not familiar with her music, please do yourself a favor and check her out in performance. For more information on what she’s working on and where she’s performing next, please engage:

Interestingly enough Jennifer is from the Bronx. I’m from NYC, we met when she was living in LA pursuing her music! She attended when of my Music Talks Sessions and we could not stop talking. During my monthly visits to LA I would look forward to driving Jennifer home after each session . We talked about music, as I am a composer, musician and producer as well.

But What I found very interesting was Jennifer was and still is very much into health and healing! Our conversations would start out with marketing music, roll into playing instruments and then into how to heal the body. She has rolled her love of live on all levels into her music and her music into her love of life! That’s what artistry is all about! I have not looked at the pictures yet, but she is a beautiful woman. I can’t imagine doing any less then high lighting her beauty!

David

http://home.earthlink.net/~rrussell007/ Robin Russell

Jennifer is a glowing spirit with an endless flow of talent and creativity. I met Jennifer in Los Angeles years ago and always look forward to hearing her new creations. Cheers!

Helene Uborka

Jen is such a gifted and talented signer & overall beautiful person!
Makes me proud to say I am from NY (actually NJ…te he he!)
Good luck Jen
WE LOVE U!

http://www.robertvreid.com Robert .R

Jenifer …….. is one of the most hard working persons I know, very talented, Her grace , beauty and endurance …. the best